The search for one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects — the man seen wearing a white baseball cap — this morning led to the sudden shutdown of the MBTA’s entire network of commuter rail, bus, and subway services.

State authorities also asked people who live in Watertown, Waltham, Newton, Belmont, Cambridge, and Allston-Brighton to stay home and for businesses in those cities and towns to stay closed. …

The other Boston Marathon bombing suspect, the man seen wearing a black hat in photos released Thursday evening, is dead after firing bullets and launching explosives at police.

“We believe these are the same individuals that were responsible for the bombing Monday at the Marathon,’’ State Police Colonel Timothy Alben said today. “We believe that they are responsible for the death of an MIT police officer and the shooting of an MBTA police officer. This is a very serious situation that we are dealing with.’’

Via Twitchy, the Associated Press has reported that both bombing suspects came here from Chechnya a little over a year ago:

I’d take that with a grain of salt for now. I’ve seen other names floated for the other bomber, too.

Update: According to NBC News, it started with an armed robbery of a 7-11:

With a bomb strapped to his chest, one of the Boston Marathon suspects was killed early Friday after he and his accomplice robbed a 7-Eleven, shot a police officer to death, carjacked an SUV and hurled explosives out the window in an extraordinary firefight with law enforcement, authorities told NBC News.

The second suspect — the one in the white hat in photos released by the FBI — was on the loose, and police ordered people in the Boston suburb of Watertown to stay in their homes and businesses not to open. Boston shut down its buses and subway system for the hunt.

The suspects are brothers with the last name Tsarnaez, law enforcement officials told NBC News. The suspect on the loose is 19 and has a Massachusetts driver’s license, they said. Law enforcement officials told NBC News that both men had international ties, had been in the United States about a year and had military experience.

Not exactly a low profile, but after having your pictures all over every news outlet in America, it’s not exactly surprising to see a panicked reaction.

Update: Also from the NBC report:

Andrew Kitzenberg, who lives in Watertown, said he saw the two men shooting at six police cars from 70 or 80 yards away.

“There was a long exchange of gunfire,” told NBC News in an interview. “They were also utilizing bombs, which sounded and looked like grenades, while engaging in the gunfight,” he said. “They also had what looked like a pressure-cooker bomb.”

Again, we’ll know more when the dust settles, and eyewitnesses might not have the expertise to identify bomb types, especially at night. Clearly, though, these were not your average stick-up men.

Update: Third man?

Third man has been arrested. He’s being called an accomplice, not yet called a suspect, reports NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston.

About 10:30, police received reports that a campus security officer at M.I.T. was shot while he sat in his police cruiser. He was found with multiple gunshot wounds, according to a statement issued by Middlesex Acting District Attorney Michael Pelgro, Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas, and MIT Police Chief John DiFava. The officer was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

A short time later, police received reports of an armed carjacking of a Mercedes SUV by two males in the area of Third Street in Cambridge, the statement said. “The victim was carjacked at gunpoint by two males and was kept in the car with the suspects for approximately a half hour,” the statement said. He was later released, uninjured, at a gas station on Memorial Drive in Cambridge.

Why leave the driver alive? It allowed the man to alert PD, which led to the shootout. The other suspect then used the SUV as a battering ram to make his escape:

Meanwhile, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, said Mr. Kitzenberg, got back into the SUV, turned it toward officers and “put the pedal to the metal.” The car “went right through the cops, broke right through and continued west.”

The two men left “a few backpacks right by the car, and there is a bomb robot out there now.” Police had told residents to stay away from their windows, he said.

As of last night, Dzokhar was still relaxed enough to check in on Facebook, apparently:

Update: WHDH reports that the two brothers may have come here as young children, as long as a decade ago. The name of the dead brother has been released, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Update: ABC’s Pierre Thomas reports that police are “worried” that other bombs may be planted around the city, and that they may be looking for “associates” that may have been involved. Police also tell ABC that paramilitary training seems to be part of the Tsarnaev’s background based on how they handled the shootout and the bombing.

Update: Just in case…

A no fly zone has been enacted over #Watertown Mass. This joins a no fly zone already in place over the bomb site.

Update: Gov. Deval Patrick issues a statement to tell people in the search area to stay inside with doors locked, and not to let anyone enter without a valid law-enforcement ID. “We have every asset that we can possibly muster on the ground right now.”

The police announced at the same briefing that the “shelter in place” recommendation has been expanded to the entire city of Boston.

Update: According to Fox’s live broadcast, the uncle of the two bombing suspects said that both of his nephews are “absolute losers,” and called for Dzhokhar to surrender. So far, no change on the standoff.

Update: While the standoff continues, this alert just went out in New York City:

Update: The suspects’ uncle may have had no sympathy for his nephews, but their father called Dzhokhar “a true angel“:

“My son is a true angel,” the elder Tsarnaev said. “Dzhokhar is a second-year medical student in the U.S. He is such an intelligent boy. We expected him to come on holidays here.”

I think we can cut Dad some slack here. What a horrible, horrible day it would be for an unsuspecting parent.

Update: Supposedly the BPD is acting on “Internet intelligence” that the suspect is threatening to kill as many people as possible in revenge for his dead brother, but that comes from a Twitter account that is probably fake; it was just created this morning. I wouldn’t doubt that the suspect is prepared to do that, since his brother had injuries from an explosive device that may have been strapped to his body, so suicide vests are a big possibility.

Update: NBC now says that PD are looking for two other suspects:

JUST IN :Police now looking for two suspects, according to authorities in Boston nbcnews.to/11JFhAP

Update: Not much happening at the Watertown standoff at the moment, but the Niagara Falls story seems to be resolving itself as unrelated and no issue. However, PD have sent out an alert for a gray Honda CRV with MA plate 316-ES9 that may be heading to Connecticut.

UPDATE: This vehicle has been recovered in Boston. All calls regarding this case should be directed to Boston investigators.

Sounds as though this may be a false lead.

Update: The car was actually discovered in Cambridge, so it didn’t go far after all.

Update: Probably not a big surprise at this point:

https://twitter.com/DylanByers/status/325258792436658178

That doesn’t mean that they’ve found any ties, of course, but clearly they’re looking that direction for motive and assistance.

Update: This is interesting — Boston PD have allowed taxi service to resume:

https://twitter.com/nprnews/status/325264230448250880

On the other hand, they’re currently bolstering their presence at another location in Cambridge, although that could be to deal with an IED that got tossed out during the police chase, which has been a possibility that police are trying to probe.

Update: UMass Dartmouth is on lockdown, and their website says that police are looking for one of their students in connection to the bombing:

“UMass Dartmouth has learned that a person being sought in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing has been identified as a student registered at UMass Dartmouth,” reads a notice on the university’s website.

Curious. Dzhokhar, or an accomplice?

Update: Now apparently police think that the two brothers split up at some point, which would put the earlier report of Dzhokhar driving over his brother to escape into urban-legend status. The second car’s abandonment in Cambridge may mean that the second suspect isn’t actually in the house in Watertown … or could be.

CNN reports it has been told by law enforcement sources that the latest area of Watertown where police have brought in heavy forces and have asked the media to move back is where a possible accomplice of the suspects is located — not fugitive Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Note: Allahpundit will take over the breaking-news coverage in a new thread in a few minutes.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

The police should check the Harvard Faculty Club for the perp. I could see him holed up with the faculty, drinking hot chocolate, sharing complaints about Americans, and all the while the faculty urging him to surrender wearing a John Deere hat and cross around his neck.

All of that aside, speaking as a jurist who served on a trial that involved way too much than I wanted to hear about child molestation, rates of recidivism, and graphic details of the situation in question, I’m quite frankly FINE with them being stamped with the identifier for the rest of their lives.

Midas on April 19, 2013 at 11:14 AM

I think the Puritans were on to something. I’m all for letting felons and sex offenders go – we’ll just brand them with a scarlet letter on their forehead (C for child molester, R for rapist, etc) and people can assess for themselves whether to associate. We can save money on maintaining registries, self-reporting and all that nonsense.

For once, Libturd has a point about paying a debt to society. The solution is just a matter of honesty about one’s past.

The FBI made no mention of the men’s height, weight or age range and would not discuss the men’s ethnicity.

‘It would be inappropriate to comment on the ethnicity of the men because it could lead people down the wrong path potentially,’ said FBI agent Greg Comcowich, a spokesman for the Boston FBI office.
Agent Daniel Curtin said the FBI did not issue the photos earlier because authorities wanted to be meticulous: ‘It’s important to get it right.’

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston issued an emergency alert at 10.48 p.m. on Thursday night reporting that shots had been fired putting an officer was down and that a shooter was on the run.

It has been reported that a ‘Hispanic looking man’ took the officer’s weapon from him before firing on him.

Jeff Bauman, whose legs were blown away in the first explosion, told investigators that he stared right into the eyes of the man who tried to kill him

But just before 2.50 p.m. on Monday, Bauman was waiting in the crowd for his girlfriend to cross the finish line when a man wearing a cap, sunglasses and a black jacket over a hooded sweatshirt looked at Jeff, 27, and dropped a bag at his feet.

‘He woke up under so much drugs, asked for a paper and pen and wrote, ‘bag, saw the guy, looked right at me,’ Chris Bauman said yesterday in an interview given to Bloomberg.

In other news, Huffington Post is reporting that the Boston Police are apparently also investigating this incident which they have identified as a “hate crime.”

Given the fact that the area police are conceding that even the disabling of potential bombs which may be lying around on the street (having been thrown there by the “terror bros.” and which perhaps may even be sitting around in the boys’ apartment, is being put on the “back burner” as a priority as a result of the primacy of the ongoing manhunt, you really have to wonder if the investigation of this “hate crime” will also be put on the “back burner,” at least until the apprehension (or neutralization) of young Dzhokhar?

It’s funny how it’s wrong for anonymous commenters on a website to jump to a correct conclusion, but it’s perfectly OK for nationally-known journalists and people like you to repeatedly jump to incorrect conclusions. Every single time there’s a violent act every single network news show as well as CNN and MSNBC blame it on the right-wing, even though they’ve been wrong on every single previous occasion.

Take your phony indignation and blow it out your azz you hypocritical douchenozzle. You’re an obnoxious, filthy little sh!t who badly needs an attitude adjustment.

Well, given the location of their residence, they didn’t need a driver, nor was there an issue with them needing to assemble the bombs close to the situs of the crime as a result of the potential for instability of the fully assembled devices.

But, Steve, I tend to agree with you. Even if it was just someone acting as a spotter, i.e., someone to walk ahead just to be sure that a.) there were no metal detectors they needed to pass through in walking unimpeded into the finish line area; or 2.) to check if there were officers with metal detector wands walking around and checking a percentage of spectators carrying large bundle or packages. People are regularly checked at ball parks.

I really hope the little bastard has a severe and permanent ringing in the ears from all of the explosives and gunfire, that torments him every night for the rest of his life as he rots in jail, as a constant reminder of what he did.